Alexander Zeldin

Alexander Zeldin (born April 24, 1985) is a British theatre and opera director. His most high profile productions to date have been a re-staging of Tsypin and Gergiev's production of Wagner's Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House, London, in July 2009, as well as the Russian premiere of Powder Her Face by Thomas Adès.

Personal life

Alexander Zeldin was born in London and moved to Oxford, UK as a child. He is of Russian-Australian descent, and is the nephew of the philosopher and historian Theodore Zeldin.^[1] Zeldin studied French at Merton College, the University of Oxford.

Career

Zeldin started directing while at Magdalen College School, Oxford, with an adaptation of Marguerite Duras' Moderato Cantabile in which Yannis Philippakis, the lead singer of Foals, performed as an actor.

After periods of training in Poland, France and the UK, Zeldin made his career breakthrough while still a student with his production of Calderón de la Barca’s Constant Prince. Partially developed in Egypt, as part of his young company Etha Theatre’s residency at the Egyptian Centre for Culture and Art the ensuing production toured Egypt widely, supported by the British Council, before transferring to the Arcola Theatre in London and the Oxford Playhouse.

In October 2007 Zeldin became one of the youngest directors to make his debut at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, with a Russian premiere production of Thomas Adès' Powder Her Face, as part of the "Jewel of Russia" festival.^[2] Since then, most of his activity has been concentrated at the Mariinsky, where he was mentored by the conductor Valery Gergiev. Zeldin played a leading role in the creation of the Mariinsky’s festival of contemporary music, New Horizons, which has become a yearly event, with residencies by Henri Dutilleux and Thomas Adès. In 2008, he staged a double bill of Ravel’s Spanish Hour and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, conducted by Gergiev, as well as a revival of Powder Her Face for the Stars of the White Nights’s Festival.

In 2008-09 Zeldin was entrusted with the Mariinsky Theatre production of Wagner's Ring Cycle with designs by George Tsypin and conducted by Gergiev, which had its premiere in St Petersburg before transferring to The Royal Opera House, London in July 2009.^[3][4][5] His re-imagining of the show based on the original 2003 designs and concept will now continue on a world tour. The Convent Garden performance attracted negative reactions from the British press, although much of this was directed against Gergiev's decision to stage all four parts of the cycle on consecutive nights, and Tsypin's set design.^[6] One review noted that inadequate rehearsal time was a considerable problem for the production: "it is a testimony to [Zeldin's] talents that you could so easily tell the passages he had been able to direct, simply from the fact that the singers were acting."^[7]

Zeldin is currently working on a production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet first developed at the National Theatre Studio for the Teatro Mercodante Theatre in Naples as part of Teatro Festival Italia in June 2010.^[8] The production will feature members of the team behind The Constant Prince with design by George Tsypin, music by Alexander Manatskov and lighting by Jean Kalman.

As of December 2009, Zeldin was slated to direct a series of music videos for the pop group Foals.

References

External links

• Profile at the Mariinsky
• Profile at Canvas Management